Backstory: Reddit has been pushing support for the Stewart/Colbert rally since its inception, possibly since before its inception.

At the Rally For Sanity press conference on Saturday, Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, asked Stewart and Colbert a question: what role did the Internet play in convincing you to hold this rally? The response: "it didn't hurt."

Did you hear that Reddit? All that work you put into getting the word out, organizing meetups, and convincing people to go "didn't hurt". All that initial support in getting the ball rolling on this rally a few months back was great, but it wasn't a factor. Thanks for your meaningless and futile support that Comedy Central really didn't need at the end of the day to get a surprise crowd of 250,000 people to the rally. Did you hear that Internet? You had no role in this either, it was all Comedy Central all the way.

Colbert doesn't get a pass on this either, his "thanks Reddit for raising half a million dollars for our charity but it didn't affect attendence one way or the other" comment is a backhanded compliment at best.

And to say this all live, in a press conference, to the co-founder of a community of millions that did everything in its power to get the word out past its own readers to the greater internet, that is flat out disrespectful and wrong. Alexis is a friend of mine, and he's a super nice guy. He would never dream of saying this to Jon Stewart but I will: you owe Alexis an apology and you owe Reddit an apology. I'll stop short at saying you owe The Internet an apology because honestly I think The Internet owes us all an apology for a number of things, Justin Bieber notwithstanding.

In the clip you'll notice Stewart uses part of his answer to Alexis' question to make the point that Comedy Central had the idea for this rally "months" before Reddit did. Which is really odd considering Alexis didn't ask or imply that Reddit gave Comedy Central the idea for the rally in the first place. Sounds like someone feels a litle guilty about something. Who thought of it first doesn't matter, it is impossible to deny that Reddit's actions encouraged Comedy Central to actually pull the trigger. Except Stewart did, right to Alexis Ohanian's face, in a live press conference.

Why am I so bent about this? First and foremost, because a friend of mine got smacked down on live TV by a guy he helped, and I can't stand by and do nothing about it without at least saying something. But also because Daily Show writers have been doing essentially the same thing to me, every single day for the past 10 years. They use Fark every day to source material, and haven't mentioned Fark on air even one single time. It's the same attitude toward Reddit: "sure doesn't hurt, but not a significant contribution." Thanks to Fark, your writers don't have to go far to fill your shows up with material for you to use. Every writer I've met thanks me vociferously for Fark and tells me how much easier it makes their jobs. Sure that's not worth a daily mention, but I would think at least one in the last 10 years. It has yet to happen. I've learned to live with it, but Alexis is my friend and he does not deserve this kind of treatment. Especially considering the effort Reddit put into promoting the rally.

I'm not implying they owe Reddit or Fark any credit for the success of the Rally, that's definitely not the case. Comedy Central did the bulk of the work, that can't be disputed. This is about common courtesy. If someone does you a favor, a thank you is a kind and appropriate response. In Reddit's case, "it doesn't hurt" is a slap in the face. It discounts all the effort they went through - and they went through a lot. And they weren't the only ones, several other large web communities pitched in as well.

Here's my proposal: Jon Stewart should apologize for discounting the impact that Reddit and other Internet communities had on this rally, or next time The Internet should remember Comedy Central thinks they don't count and should show them what happens when "The Internet" actively works to convince people to not attend. Because if Reddit had put similar effort into convincing people not to attend, the crowd size would have been far smaller than anticipated. And if you don't believe me, let's see how it goes next time if Stewart makes the wrong decision.

PS: pretty sure this post will guarantee that I and/or Fark never get a mention on The Daily Show but that wasn't happening anyhow.

OregonVet:jabbedxorz: If this blog post was a little bit smaller, we would have ourselves an excellent pic to use when folks are butthurt.

I don't know if you know of this one program some people use.... It's called Photoshop. There's another one that's even free; it's called GIMP.

Right. And unless you want a retardedly big image or a normal-sized, unreadable image, my point still stands. You may have lower standards for creating content for the internet, but I, good sir, do not share your sentiments for such things!

It sucks when you get told not to be an attention whore, when you are attention whoring at the National Press Club. You'll get over it.

This thing was in motion long before the internet was involved, and most people never heard of Fark or Reddit - so their affect on this situation was only important to those that thought they affected it.

Then why wouldn't you spread around the credit to get (and KEEP) people invested? Some people spent time, money, effort and energy because they DID feel some sense of ownership, like their intent mattered.

There may have been applications and plans prior to that first reddit post, but why strip them of their pride? They felt like they had contributed to the very existence of the rally, and while that may not have been true, it certainly cost nothing to let them bask in some of the spotlight in that moment. I don't believe that anyone needed to lie and claim it was all Reddit's idea, but there were better, more inclusive alternatives available.

Snow Monkey:CynicalLA:Fark Drew, he sold out a long time ago and has become what he used to criticize.

Haters gonna hate? You're browsing & posting the website he created & managed into success. You get to do it for free (just like me!), and enjoy the headlines/submissions of your community.

Why such venom for Drew? It's not like he's forcing you to be here or begging you for money.

I've been on this site for ten years and the politics tab has turned into troll central. Nothing but sensational headlines are picked because he knows they sell better. He's a hypocrite and it's why I haven't paid for Total Fark in years.

I can't be sure here, but I think they just wanted a sincere "thank you". I know "thank you's" are hard to come by in this economy, but I checked with Miss Manners, and they're still warranted when someone helps you. Yes, even if you didn't ask, like when someone holds open a door. You're pretty sure you would have managed to open the door yourself, but you still give a thank you, if for no other reason than you don't look like a complete farkwad.

I don't recall seeing anything about the rally on Fark until after it had been announced. The subject, hosts, and 20-minute walk from my apartment made me want to go, not a bunch of elitest internet pricks.

/thinks Drew has an inflated opinion of how much he (and similar internet news aggregators) matter

I'm going out on a limb that Drew's Sarcasm Detector is busted and he really should look into a new one. These two guys are the kings of sarcasm, and both of them are very adept at delivering it completely deadpan.

I agree that both the Colbert Report and Daily Show owe a certain amount to the internet and the communities for material, and a mention would be nice, but I don't feel that this is an example of them not being appropriately appreciative.

The Cracked people have a similar conniption fit every time a morning "Zoo crew" radio host uses one of their lists with out crediting them for it. And they pay for the content they post.

As anyone who has graded a paper that was copy-pasted from Wikipedia can attest, there is a general entitlement attitude about information (and music, and movies) on the internet. Because it dosent cost the end user anything, people assume that it's free, and prioritize it with the other "free" things in their lives. roads, public education, hotel bibles, coffee shop internet connections, parental love, the right to vote, and any number of things that have a cost that isn't born by it's recipient aren't appreciated except by the people that had to build them. Last I checked, Rupert Murdoc accused you (Fark) and Drudge of eating his lunch without paying.

and it's not going to change. John Steward isn't going to appologise, and we will still watch the Daily show and buy the products and services of his advertisers.

I sympathy, but at least the people mining your load for content that they then sell on TV probably have Total Fark subscriptions. At least you can make money on the internet and keep your clothes on.

Man, awful lot of Drew hatin' going on in here. Personally, I'm grateful for what Drew has done with Fark, even though I do call a politics thread 'Reddit Lite'. This is the only news aggregator that at least tries to provide a balance of political stories. Reddit is nothing but a left wing circle jerk (and they do love their repeats too). And if the writers at CC use Fark for material, it would be at, the least, polite for them to give Fark a shout out.

Best of all, I get to see all this stuff for free. The last thing I would do is get snarky with the man that is providing what I consider a valuable service to me. That would be a good reason for Drew to say 'fark this shiat' and sell it off to some nameless corporation who may not be as attentive to the community (or even shut it down). If you did get fed up to the point you decided to go that route, Drew, I would hope you sell out to News Corp just to watch everyone collectively shiat their pants.

So, TFers, I suppose you have paid for the privilege to say what you will. Everyone else needs to STFU (or click on a hundred ads a month or something). But maybe Drew is having a bad day and this just got under his craw. Anyone think of that? Everyone has bad days. Let the man who provides your entertainment have one too, and at least provide your snark a bit more politely, and allow for extenuating circumstances you may not know exist. Otherwise, you're just being an asshole.

After reading all of Drew's rant, I kind of agree with him, Ive seen Jon Stewart and Letterman and Leno all use Fark headlines in their jokes, ENTIRELY UNCREDITED. Im sure they do the same with Reddit. The only show Ive seen give credit to Fark for use of headlines is Jeopardy.

Subtonic:Reddit has and always will be the hyper activist hippie college freshman of the internet. Fark is the jaded middle aged cubicle drone that takes no pleasure in anything beyond criticizing others. Also, John is getting a little too much of a big head over this crap. Colbert is a hell of a lot better.

How do you lay claim to things that you are linked by other peoples' suggestion? Fark is a middleman and you don't own the news stories that are linked here. So for all you know, the DS writers could really just be scouring the internet like wild beasts to find silly stories. Maybe those writers are the ones making the best links. Anyways, I don't think a cable television show or channel really wants to be talking about the internet since it probably eats away most of their advertisement moolah.

I'm sure at no point Comedy Central or parent companies had the idea to start their own Fox News Machine and a grass roots campaign on the internet disguised as commentators to put the idea of an anti-rally up on a few message boards.

You all just got played, just like the Tea Party-ers on the other side of the ball. Way to go internet, you're so forward-thinking and progressive.

Did you ever think that it could honestly be true that Reddit's support didn't actually have much of an effect on his decision to hold the rally? Sounded like he answered honestly. And its not even that mean or backhanded. I find it plausable that even without Reddit's support, they would have had the rally.

This is hilarious coming from a man whose entire income (and I dare say fortune) is derived from absolutely no work of his own.

You link to articles written by other people. Articles that are found and submitted by users with headlines written by users. You even charge people 5 dollars a month for the privilege of seeing all of this user submitted content.

This is not like you sitting at home, refusing to get up and take the trash out because you have to watch the football game live because you can change the outcome by thinking hard enough. The internet is the new frontier of the grassroots movement, slick.

1. Jon Stewart doesn't bow before the monolithic, cat-infested Internet juggernaut. Watch his show closely enough, it's clear he thinks the Web is just as full of crap as the msm. He's dismissed and ridiculed the Internet on several occasions. It's pretty obvious (or it has been in the past) that he thinks Twitter, for example, is ludicrous. (And he's pretty much right about that one.)

2. I really do feel like you were watching a different video. Stewart seemed matter-of-fact at best, not dismissive. It'd be the Fark thing to do to razz you just like everyone else, but I know how this sort of misunderstanding can roll out and before you know it you've slammed 1500 words on a blog, only to go back and see you missed a crucial word or turn of phrase that might change your entire understanding of what you heard.

Backstory: Fark.com has been using community support to provide headlines and search out news stories since it became popular.

On the FarkBlog at Fark.com, Drew Curtis, the founder of Fark.com, asserted that founding a community (or being the friend of someone who founded a community) gave you the right to express offense on behalf of that group. During the long and rambling tirade, not once did Drew Curtis mention the thousands of people who contribute to his site each and every day. The people who drive comments, search the internet for bizarre and funny news stories, and come up with amusing headlines to drive traffic to the website.

Did you hear that, Fark community? All that work you do to make his website a success means nothing to Drew Curtis. All your support means nothing, because Drew Curtis is the absolute arbiter of what is and is not offensive to the internet, or to his community. Even further, Drew Curtis is allowed to express offense on behalf of websites in which he has absolutely no official participation! That means that his non-involvement is actually more meaningful than those of you who actually participate at Reddit!

Now, the Fark.com community is a friend of mine, and you can tell from my ID number that I have been on this website for a very long time. Drew Curtis' omission of the Fark.com community is disrespectful and out of line. He uses our material each and every day to drive page-views and ad-revenue to live a lifestyle most of us would be grateful to have.

While Jon Stewart expressed an understated compliment to the people of Reddit and explained why their impact wasn't as larged as might have been perceived, Drew Curtis did something much worse. While pointing out the impact that his website has had toward media outlets (a claim which he neglected to back up with any real facts) he did not once mention that all of his site's success derives from the user-base. A user-base which has provided him with a lifestyle that allows him to get outraged at a perceived slight of one of his friends.

Here's my proposal: Drew Curtis should apologize for discounting the impact that his userbase has had on his website, or next time, the Fark.com userbase should stop contributing. Maybe if Drew Curtis was reminded that the life he leads is funded and financed by the community which he has callously abused, he might do what he can to restore truth to the headlines, particularly in the Politics tab.

PS: pretty sure I'm not going to get a response from Drew on this, but that wasn't happening anyway